Anyone have a diabetic dog?

[lavender444]

Our almost 9 yr old Rottie is being tested for it. I'm curious what symptoms you dog had and what your day to day life is like. The vet talked about insulin injections and a diet change. Do you check your dogs blood sugar to know how much insulin to give? Was diet change enough to help without meds?

Our Rottie was slightly over-weight at her last well visit in Janurary She weighed 110#. We switched her to a low-cal food and increased her activity slightly (we cannot let her be too active since she had surgery to correct Elbow dysplasia.) About 6 weeks ago, she had an eye infection, and at that vet visit weighed 106#. Today I took her in because she has not been eating well the last few days and she is down to 100#. The vet seemed pretty certain Lola is diabetic. Although that is a large weight loss in a short time, I would think that she would show more signs. She does not drink or pee excessively. Her activity is normal. She is a very picky eater, and has not been happy with the low-cal food and we recently switched to grain-free, which is the food she is refusing to eat. If she comes back as being diabetic I'm just curious what to expect.

thanks!

[calico]

Classic signs of diabetes are, of course, weight loss and increased thirst. Weight loss in animals can happen from so many different things and it annoys me to no end when vets jump immediately to diabetes without waiting for the bloodwork to come back.

Honestly, 6 pounds in 6 weeks is faster loss than recommended, but if she's refusing to eat the food you give her, 6 pounds is not a lot to lose in that time frame. If she hates the GF food you are giving her, have you sampled others?

If she is actually diabetic, she will require a lot more hands on care. I don't know how scheduled you are right now, but when our cat was (mis)diagnosed, we had to completely change our lifestyle and start living a strict schedule. It was hell trying to test her blood (which is so important b/c you can kill the animal if you give them too much insulin), vet visits made me use so much leave from work and agonizing over dosing kept me up at night. We ended up getting a second opinion and am so glad that we did.

[lavender444]

Do you check your cats blood sugar at home? How? Where do you poke them? I stay home with my kids, so my schedule is very flexable.

Yesterday, at the vet I was a bit emotional. Everytime something unexpected happens with the dogs it throws me into a loop and I start to cry and get clouded judgement. I work in a hospital prior to staying home and can deal with sick people all day, but bring along a ill animal and I instantly fall apart. After getting home and calming down, I'm realizing that Lola has lost 10 lbs over an almost 4 month period. That is not really an alarming amount of time. Expecially considering she is a super picky eater. We have to switch food often to get her to eat when her meal is served (she always eats eventually, when she gets hungry. This is the first time she's refused it for several days). We also adopted an 18 month old GSD at the end of last year, so she went from a pretty lazy life to being forced to play with this giant goofball. Her life of leisure is no more. So with the increase movement and the diet changes it doesn't worry me as much today. I am still glad we did blood work. They did a full senior panel, so if something is off, hopefully that catches it. If the blood work does catch something, we'll go to a referral center for treatment. I've had a bad experience in the past with a vet who missed something they shouldn't have, so now we see a specilist for anything major.

They also started her on antibiotics and ear drops. In the process of watching her close, looking for reason she was not eating, I noticed she had a slight head tilt. I have no idea if she's always done that, and it caught my attention because I was looking for something, or if it's new. They swabbed her ears and started her on the antibiotics just incase. The more I research I' m thinking she has an middle ear infection, or vestibula. I think that it's in a minor stage so it's just making her a little nauseated, which is why she has no interest in eating but is not showing more signs of inbalance or vomiting. I was able to get her to eat half of her dinner and breakfast by mixing in pumpkin and wet food. So that helps me feel better, too.

[calico]

Glad that you are in a better place today. I hope the bloodwork comes back all good!

Before the 2nd opinion, we tried to check the cat's blood sugar at home. Key word there is tried. You can use a human blood glucose monitor and lancets. It was recommended that we get the model that uses the smallest amount of blood possible. For a cat, the recommended areas to test are the ear or the paw pad. I could not get enough blood out of my cat to test. I tried and tried and tried, but she just wasn't a bleeder. I ended up having a mental breakdown b/c I couldn't get enough blood out of her to test and I refused to give her insulin without being able to monitor her blood glucose levels.

[lavender444]

Ugh! That sounds awful! I would have a very difficult time poking the dogs. Thankfully Lola's bloodwork came back fine. No diabetes. Not sure what's up with her eating. I think I'm gonna have to come to terms with the fact that she is getting old and slowing down. She is still a little off today, but seems okay. The vet said to give the antibiotics a few days to work and bring her in on Friday if there is no improvement. Poor old girl.

Thanks for your help.